By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Like a career officer in any army, Capt. John Bennett follows orders. No questions. No debate.

“I get my orders, too,” Bennett said Monday, trying to keep cool in a gray polo shirt instead of his trademark uniform of black and red, the colors of the Salvation Army.

On Tuesday, he planned to finish packing his belongings at the Army’s Park Street headquarters, where he has commanded for nine years with his wife, Margaret.

“The good news is that we got to stay here nine great years,” said Bennett. That’s a long time in an organization that tends to reassign people every five years.

Bennett pointed to several accomplishments during the tenure here with his wife: the Army’s greater visibility within the community, the strengthening of the local office’s leadership and creation of the canteen, a mobile kitchen to feed the hungry.

“It’s the Gospel with its sleeves rolled up,” said Bennett, 52. It’s work he learned after following a meandering path.

At 8 years old, he proclaimed to his parents that he wanted to join the ministry. However, it was several decades before it happened.

At 19 years old, the native of Rutland, Vt., married Margaret, his high school sweetheart. The couple moved to Maine and Bennett took work in law enforcement.

His jobs included stints in the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and with the Portland police. He drove a Portland Metro bus for a while before joining the Salvation Army in 1993 as a full-time apprentice. He and Margaret worked first in Rutland. They came to Lewiston in 1996.

“Everything about this job is we’,” said Bennett, though Margaret prefers a behind-the-scenes role. Her focus is the business of running an institution such as the Salvation Army. Bennett’s work is running the Methodist ministry’s Sunday services and public relations.

“I’m the public figure,” Bennett said. “She’s the brain.”

When they began in Lewiston, perfunctory meetings of the board went unattended and few people knew what the organization did in the community, Bennett said.

That has changed.

The Salvation Army began using its canteen during the ice storm of 1998, cooking meals for people who went to Lewiston High School for shelter. And the mobile kitchen has continued its work, principally feeding hungry people in Lewiston’s Kennedy Park.

The canteen, like the bell ringers outside local stores, became a tangible reminder of the charity in the community.

Meanwhile, Bennett began speaking to local civic groups. He gave interviews to local media and did what he could to raise money, from helping people buy heating oil in winter to helping children attend camp in summer.

“The Salvation Army is a community resource,” he said. “I try to remind people of that.”

The work will continue on Wednesday, when he takes over the Augusta chapter of the Salvation Army.

His charge: to increase the visibility of the Salvation Army in the capital city.

Too many times, the charity has been left out as other groups such as the American Red Cross have met with state policy makers, he said.

It’s something he believes he can help improve.

Meanwhile, a couple from Watertown, N.Y., Richard and Kathleen Lyle, will take over here in Lewiston.

Their reputation suggests that they may be able to improve the administration of this chapter, Bennett said.

“That was a weakness of ours,” he said.

Perhaps, the Army’s orders were right, he said.